I am pleased to announce that expanding the number of people who work on our books is showing results. With the help of Megan Fitzpatrick (who has been assisting us from the beginning), Meghan B. and now Kara Gebhart Uhl, we are finishing up some massive projects (and even taking on some new ones).
The latest news: We just sent the third volume of “The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years” to press and it will be ready to ship in late November or early December. It covers joinery, is 288 pages long and filled with a huge amount of information on designing, cutting and even repairing your joints.
The book is $37, which includes domestic shipping. You can order the book here or download an excerpt here to check it out.
When we began planning this third volume of “The Woodworker: The Charles H. Hayward Years,” we used the 1954 edition of “Woodwork Joints” by Hayward – a 5-1/2” x 8-1/5” folio printed by Evans Bros. Limited – as our guiding light.
It’s difficult to overstate the importance of the book “Woodwork Joints,” which was first published in 1950 then reprinted many times and in several different editions of varying quality.
The compact 168-page book is beautifully illustrated by Hayward and contains the kind of spare prose that made him the best woodworking author of the 20th century. Like a good woodworking joint, Hayward’s text contains nothing superfluous and lacks nothing important to the task at hand.
Every illustration from “Woodwork Joints” had appeared in The Woodworker magazine, where Hayward was editor from 1939 to 1967. So as we read every magazine issue from those years for our book, we marked and scanned every magazine article on joinery to make sure we captured everything that could have ended up in “Woodwork Joints.” We almost succeeded.
The good news is that our efforts have produced a book that covers nearly all of Hayward’s writing on joinery during the 28 years he was editor at The Woodworker. And because of the nature of the magazine format, we actually were able to plumb much deeper into the details of cutting and fitting joints to include things that never made it into “Woodwork Joints.”
For example, Hayward wrote 20 pages on dovetails in “Woodwork Joints.” This book has 90 pages on dovetails, and the pages are much bigger (8-1/2” x 11”) than the 1954 edition. As a result, you’ll find far more information on the secret mitre dovetail, stopped dovetailed housings, decorative dovetails and the double-lap dovetail. Plus details on how to correct faults in your joints, how to avoid crushing the end grain when chopping out and even a novel way to cut both the tails and pins simultaneously.
In addition to Hayward’s take on joinery, this volume also contains the perspective of other British writers of the day that Hayward published in The Woodworker, including J. Maynard, Robert Wearing, K.J.S. Walker and C.A. Hewett.
So where did we fail? Despite our best efforts to find them, this volume does not contain a couple short sections from “Woodwork Joints,” including hand-cut joints specifically for plywood and the use of metal fishplates with scarf joints.
Those faults aside, we think this volume is an admirable companion – if not a replacement – of “Woodwork Joints.” I hope this book becomes as ratty and thumbed-through as almost every copy of “Woodwork Joints” I’ve ever seen. That would be the best tribute ever to Hayward as his work continues to inspire the next generation of woodworkers.
Like all Lost Art Press books, “The Woodworker: The Charles Hayward Years” is produced and printed entirely in the United States. At 288 pages, it is printed on smooth acid-free #60 paper and joined with a tough binding that is sewn, affixed with fiber tape and then glued. The pages are covered in dense hardbound covers that are wrapped with cotton cloth.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. We don’t know which of our retailers will carry this title but will announce it when they sign on. Also, this volume will not be discounted when bought as a set with the other volumes. Sorry, but it would get too complicated for our accounting to handle.
Do you no longer take PayPal? The option is no longer on the checkout payment screen.
We do not, I’m afraid. PayPal’s fees were killing us. Sorry.
Not a big deal. Its just that is where I hide my “me” money from management. This book will be worth the lecture though. 😉
Wow! … no Amazon…. no paypal.. are you some kind of anarchist?!
Same boat here 🙂
As a small-book fetishist, I can’t help but complain silently in my head every time a big book is slated for release. Obviously, they’re lovely for different reasons, and fantastic as table-top reference books, but as someone who carries books all around, to read on the go, many (read: most) of the Lost Art Press books are simply too big to be convenient as a reading book. And even reading them in bed, they’re often heavy enough to be uncomfortable for my hands and wrists.
The door and window-making book was a good example of an ideal size. I’d love to see some more similarly sized books from Lost Art Press at some point. Especially ones that are meant to be read and not just referenced.
Of course, I’ll probably buy a lot of these regardless; but the question is, will I end up reading them?
Very exciting news, thanks for all the hard work! Will there be a full version pdf available?
“Will there be a full version pdf available?”
I’m afraid that as with the last two volumes, we do not have digital rights for this material. Wish we could.
Great news! I’m looking forward to this book. The OCD woodworker in me has to ask… Will this book match the first two volumes released last year? i.e. same size, cover material, design, etc.
How many volumes are intended for the series?
“Will this book match the first two volumes released last year? i.e. same size, cover material, design, etc. ”
Yes. Same specs. Same printing plant.
“How many volumes are intended for the series?”
There is one more volume on workbenches, tool chests, furniture styles, historical furniture forms and “odds and sods.”
I have a copy of all Haywards books and I fully endorse all that Himself has said. Unfortunately I do not have any of the magazines except for a small collection that were compiled and sold as a small booklet.
They really are the bees knees of hand woodwork by a practising expert who was an exceptional writer. The LAP books are too expensive for me to buy here in the UK so they will have to be birthday and Christmas presents.
Would CRUCIBLE TOOL consider build and release that nice “MITRE TEMPLATE” that appears in page 925? Please say you will. (crossed fingers) 🙂
Will there be digital copies of this series?
From four comments up:
“I’m afraid that as with the last two volumes, we do not have digital rights for this material. Wish we could.”
I prefer dead tree to read, but digital wins easily for searching and mining.
An idea that has rolled around my head for a bit.
LAP, or simply LAP readers/enthusiasts, could setup something like a Google Spaces page to function as a crowd-sourced and digitally searchable index. There would be no reproduction of content — it would strictly be a way for people to effectively “tag” an important concept and call out where it is in the book, so other readers of the book could digitally search for a topic and get a quick list of page number references.
So for example, you could throw up a post calling out p. 122 of ADB as having a picture of the bench fixture that can be used to assist in planing octagonal legs, and then tag it with terms “octagon, staked, legs.” Then you find on p. 173 the pictures of gauging the legs, and you tag it the same way. Now, someone that’s trying to comprehensively organize their thoughts around how they’re going to produce their octagonal tapered legs could do a quick search and get a little roadmap of where to open their copy of ADB to in order to plan out their next steps on their project.
I’m afraid LAP doesn’t have the resources to start or maintain something like this.
But we are not opposed to readers doing it.
Absolutely, I would’ve expected you have a few things you’re working on already… 🙂
It’s an idea for the crowd. Would probably be a bit tough to get off the ground but if there is interest, I’d be happy to help coordinate something with other readers.
I agree. But a copyright is a copyright and the holder of it said “no” to digital rights. Not much more we can do.
I have a 1979 edition of “Woodworking Joints” by Charles Hayward with your missing two sections; “Plywood (Joints for Manufactured Boards)” and “Fish Plate (Length Joints, Splice, Scarf and Fish Plate).” Both sections are illustrated with drawings by Hayward.
Chis, are you interested in using them? If so how can contact you?
I have “Woodwork Joints.” That’s not the issue. We don’t have rights to reproduce “Woodwork Joints,” only pieces from The Woodworker. So thanks, but I’m afraid it won’t help.